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The Flash (Barry Allen)
History Barry Allen and a twin brother were born on May 13, two weeks late, to Henry and Nora Allen in the small midwestern town of Fallville, Iowa. The brother was pronounced stillborn by Dr. Gilmore. However, in actuality, he had been born healthy, but given to another family, the Thawne's, whose child had died during birth. The lateness of Barry's birth only foreshadowed his bad habit of always being late. Barry grew up reading the adventures of his favorite super hero, Jay Garrick, the original Flash, and acted many of his hero's adventures out with his friend and future actress, Daphne Dean. In high school, Barry had a reputation for being slow and easy-going. On his first date, he went to a carnival. His date had wanted to put a little motion in his life, and they went on the roller coaster first thing. Because of this, he developed a fear of roller coasters, a fear that he didn't get rid of until much later in his life. Barry loved chemistry from an early age, and that helped his skills as a farmer. He won first place in the Fallville County Fair Agricultural Competition, a prize which included an scholarship to Sun City University. He graduated in three years summa cum laude with a major in organic chemistry and a minor in criminology. While a senior, Barry helped the authorities apprehend a bank robber, and he was offered a job as a police scientist for the Central City Police Department Scientific Detection Bureau. Eager to be in the sister city of his boyhood hero's home, Keystone City, he accepted the offer. After moving to Central City and getting an apartment with a laboratory in the back, Barry began dating Picture News reporter Iris West, who he met while examining an apparent murder that she was reporting. She was charmed by his honesty and stability. One night during an electrical storm, Barry returned to an experiment after a short break. All of a sudden, a bolt of lightning streaked through the window, knocked him over, and smashed down certain chemicals, giving him a bath in them. Dazed, he decided to return home in a taxi. However, the taxi started to pull away without noticing him. Barry sprinted after it, only to run straight past it as if it had been standing still. He decided sit down and recollect his thoughts at a diner. A passing waitress accidentally spilled the items of her tray onto Barry, who amazingly caught them all in mid-air and returns them to the tray. The next day, Barry amazingly saved Iris from a stray bullet. There was no question about it: the freak accident had somehow given Barry superhuman speed! Deciding to use his powers to help humanity, Barry designed a special costume. He used a special cold cast polyester he developed in college, which could be molded into miniature outfits from liquid material, that, when submersed in a special liquid, became sensitive to hydrogen, expanding on contact with the hydrogen in the air. A charge from a battery-powered ring he wore on his finger caused the fabric to release the extra hydrogen and shrink into the ring. He later revised the process, making the fabric sensitive to nitrogen instead. He called himself the Flash, a tribute to his childhood idol. He briefly considered wearing a costume that would show his face, like Jay had, but decided that it would be best to wear a mask to conceal his true identity. The first villain he faced was the Turtle Man. As the Flash, Barry later became a founding member of the Justice League of America, where he befriended Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, with whom he had many adventures both with and without the Justice League. Later still he discovered that Jay Garrick was real, and became friends with him as well. One summer, Iris's nephew Wally came to visit her in Central City. He was an incredible Flash fan, and he knew his aunt's boyfriend was a "friend" of the Flash, so a meeting was arranged. Flash answered all of Wally's questions. When Wally asked about the lab experiment, Barry set up the cabinet of chemicals in his lab just as it had been during the accident. All of a sudden, lightning came through the window and made Wally into Kid Flash! Eventually, Barry proposed to Iris on a Ferris wheel at the fair. She accepted, and they were married, in spite of the efforts of Professor Zoom, who attempted to foil the ceremony. Barry hid his identity from Iris for a year, although she had known the entire time because he had spoken in his sleep on their honeymoon. He was worried that the accident had made him less human and that they would not be able to have children. However, after performing many tests that first year, he determined that they still could, and he revealed his secret. However, it was not long before Zoom took Iris's life at a masquerade party. Barry chased him into the timestream and left him there. Barry met and began to date another woman, Fiona Webb. However, on the day they were supposed to be married, Zoom showed up again, claiming that he would once again kill the wife of the Flash. Barry chased him across the world, and failed to show up for his own wedding. In the end, Zoom was about to kill Fiona, but Barry unwittingly killed him. The Flash was charged with manslaughter and had to face a long trial. Barry's face was disfigured severely in a battle with Big Sir. He went to Gorilla City to have his face repaired. Since Barry Allen had supposedly been missing, he decided to have it reconstructed into a completely new face, so that he could keep his secret identity dead. Later, Barry was brought to the 30th century, where Iris was from and had been reborn. For about a month, they lived in happiness. Iris would later have twins, Don and Dawn Allen. As shown in Flash #224-225, Barry made a stop in time during his trip to the future and met up with Wally West in a battle against Professor Zoom. There were two Zooms at the time and they each took one. Barry faired much better than Wally, and sent his Zoom through the timestream. It is unclear what happened to him, but he does end up in the 30th century Crisis on Infinite Earths The Crisis on Infinite Earths brought Barry out of retirement. The 30th Century was beginning to fall apart: natural disasters were occurring despite the technology that had been created to stop them, and reality itself was fraying. Flash returned to the 20th century to warn his fellow heroes. Just as he started to warn Batman, he was pulled into the Antimatter Universe by the Anti-Monitor, where he was mentally tortured by the Psycho-Pirate. Finally, he used the Psycho-Pirate to turn all of the Anti-Monitor's servants, the Thunderers, against him. This gave him enough time to destroy the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon by running around it and destroying the outer casing. He ran so incredibly fast that he entered the Speed Force forever. Although there were no remains, a grave for Barry was placed in New York City. Infinite Crisis Barry Allen's soul comes out from the Speed Force, along with Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, to help his grandson Bart to deal with Superboy-Prime, taking the villainous lad with him in the Speed Force. Bart Allen appears wearing Barry Allen's costume in Tokyo to tell the heroes that Superboy Prime has escaped the Speed Force. Bart again reappears in Barry Allen's costume to combat Superboy Prime once more. Barry spent four years in an alternate Keystone City along with Max Mercury, Johnny Quick and an alternate Jay Garrick, until he met Bart and Wally West, joining him after the battle against Superboy-Prime. After Superboy escapes, Barry suggests that someone of the still living speedsters has to absorb the whole Speed Force and cross the dimensional bridge back to Post-Crisis Earth. As Bart volunteers, Barry gives him his suit as a last gift, to keep the Force contained, and stays behind. Final Crisis In "Final Crisis" #2, Barry Allen appears to Jay Garrick and Wally West, shouting to them to "Run!". Barry, wearing his Silver Age costume, is being pursued by the Death Racer. He appears to be chasing an Anti-Life bullet. Powers and Abilities Speed Force Connection: Speed Force is a vaguely defined extra-dimensional energy force from which most superspeed-powered heroes draw their powers. The Speed Force serves as the ultimate measure of velocity in the DCU. They are often referred to in terms of barriers: Sound barrier, Light barrier, Time Barrier, Dimensional Barrier, and finally the Speed Force Barrier. While all speedsters are powered by the force, Barry can run many times in excess of the speed of light and be pulled into and exit the Speed Force by his own volition. Sharing the Force: "Lending" velocity to objects or people already in motion. Since his interaction with the Speed Force, he may also lend his speed and angular momentum to another object or person. This may allow others to run alongside with the Flash. He may still allow his molecular structure to pass through object but now after he passes through an object, the object is now supercharged with a chaotic energy, and explodes seconds after his passing through it. Stealing Speed: He is able to "steal" speed and/or momentum from anyone, effectively turning them into living statues. Also can steal speed from bullets and other fast moving objects thrown at him or at others. Speed Force Aura: The Flash's body is surrounded by what he calls his "speed force aura". This aura protects him and anyone who is running with him or carried by him, from the effects of using his speed. This includes friction and airborne particulate matter. It may also protect him from injury from high speed impacts such as punches he delivers and receives from his opponents. With this aura he is able to absorb kinetic energy. He does seem to possess some level of superhuman resistance to injury but this does not extend far past normal physical interactions, as received from normal combat. Super Speed: It appears that the Flash may run at any speed that he thinks is possible, but there may be physical limits to his speed. Theoretically, speeds greater than Mach 10, are dangerous to the people and to the environment. This speed would still be the equivalent to approximately 128 miles per second; allowing him to cross the United States in about 23 seconds, or circle the world in about 3 minutes. The Flash rarely achieves such speed in populated areas due to the effects of sonic disruptions and air displacements. His cruising speeds are probably around 90-150 miles per hour (1.5 - 2.5 miles per second). This is fast enough to move through most cities and around people without causing too much disruption to the population and slow enough for him to register everything he sees clearly. If he choses, Barry can approach the speed of light, and doing so, enters the Speed Force dimension. If he chooses to continue to run at light speed, he can use the Speed Force dimension for a form of haphazard Time Travel. Metabolize Wounds: Accelerating his healing factor while using the Force to sustain him, he could heal from grievous injury, without prematurely aging like his alternate version, Walter West. Time & Dimensional Travel: Allen has shown to be able to traverse time and dimensions with his own powers. Molecular Control: The Flash has always possessed the ability to control his speed and angular momentum at the molecular level, and control his molecular interactions to allow his body to pass through any substance. There have been only a few superdense materials that the Flash has not been able to penetrate with this power. Certain forcefields also seem to negate this power. While in an intangible state, Flash is immune to any airborn viruses and can breathe regularly. Increased Perceptions: The Flash possesses the ability to alter his perceptions so that falling objects can appear to be standing still and can be caught and moved back to their normal position. He can do this so quickly as to have it happen invisibly to the normal human eye. Supercharged Brain Activity: The Flash's mental abilities are also increased in speed, simple computations can be done at lightning speeds, and his ability to perform normal feats at increased speeds has allow him to build hundreds of force field generators in a matter of hours, move sandbags to cover a beach or search an entire area for something as small as a paper clip. Barry can also read as super-speed, and often takes advantage of his ability to learn at increased speeds, although, Jay Garrick has done so and has become a jack of all trades in several disciplines and languages. Other Speed Feats: The Flash can also perform a variety of super-speed feats such as: He can strike a single opponent hundreds of times in a second or multiple opponents two or three times in a second. He can disarm, or jam any number of opponents weapons before they are even aware of his movement. Hurl small projectiles at hypersonic velocities. The creation of wind based vortices's that can act as barriers to movement, funnels for toxic gas's, or vacuum chambers. He can spin his arms to create directed funnels of hurricane speed air that can knock down barriers or reduce the speed of a falling object. He can run across bodies of water, up the sides of buildings, and by spinning like a helicopter, he can even perform a limited kind of flight. Since his power is a quantum/molecular phenomenon, it is theoretically possible for the Flash to be able to fly just as other metas do, (and there have been other flying speedsters in the past, such as the deceased Johnny Quick,) because he can control his absolute molecular energy and direction and force it in the direction he wished to move without running. Paraphernalia Equipment: Costume Ring Transportation: Cosmic Treadmill Weapons: None known. Trivia *Barry Allen was portrayed by John Wesley Shipp on the 1990 CBS Flash television series. *Barry Allen was also portrayed briefly by actor Kenny Johnston in the failed Justice League of America TV Show pilot episode that never aired in the USA but only in Canada and Europe. Links *Wikipedia Page *DC Database Project Page Category: CharactersCategory:Justice League Members